John H. D’Aquino
Education.
- Binghamton University, B.A. Philosophy, minor in German Studies, 2022
- University at Buffalo School of Law, J.D., 2025
Admitted to practice.
- State of New York
Get to know John.
An eye—and ear—for detail.
Guitar players like John have a term for the relentless pursuit of a specific sound: tone chasing. It takes refined adjustments, swaps, and rebuilds so that what comes out of the amp matches what’s in your head. Many musicians chase tone by buying new gear.
Not John.
John taught himself electronics, learned to read schematics, and started building and servicing his own amplifiers from components, soldering connections by hand.
“In order to be satisfied with the end product, you can’t make sweeping changes. You have to analyze the whole system, understand that one minor change to a circuit will affect something else down the line, and plan accordingly.”
That drive—not just to get the result, but to understand how every piece fits together to produce it—has shaped John’s path from the start. At Binghamton University, he studied philosophy and learned German, where the work demanded the kind of deep, structural thinking he was after. Having been interested in the law, a clerkship at the Broome County Public Defender’s Office confirmed what he’d been circling: the law offered the same opportunity to take apart complex problems and build something precise from what he found inside.
Contact.
Email:
jdaquino@mullinsmcdonnell.com
Direct phone number:
716-936-7901 ext. 111
From musical notation and German grammar to electrical schematics and case law, what ties together John’s diverse interests is a fascination with components and how they work together to get things just right. John’s instinct is to learn the language, understand the pieces, and put them together until the result matches the intention.
The work that comes through Mullins McDonnell rewards that instinct. The firm’s caseload demands close, varied attention—different fact patterns, different problems to decode, different arguments to construct from the ground up.
“It’s about having all your ducks in a row,” John says. “Being heavily familiar with the facts of the case and deploying those facts in a way that lines up with the law is how you get the outcome you want.”
Whether he’s wiring an amplifier circuit or building a legal argument, every component has to earn its place, and every connection has to hold. John approaches each challenge knowing that the result is only as strong as the process that produced it.
